Best New Serbian Word: Studentoslovlje or Zastarelica
In the fourth vote for the best new Serbian word, the public and the expert jury disagreed, so two different words took first place.
In May, J. V. from Belgrade was an eighth grader sitting at a municipal Serbian language competition. That is where the student came up with the word the expert jury has now rewarded with first place and 600 euros: zastarelica. It is a native Serbian replacement for “archaism,” a new word whose job is to name words that have been left behind in the past. The irony is hard to miss, and it is only half the story of the fourth vote for the best new Serbian word.
The other half is that the public did not vote the way the jury did. By public vote, the winner was “studentoslovlje”.
How did the vote for the best new Serbian word unfold?
The organizer is Mala Biblioteka, and proposals were collected from mid-May 2026. Ten words made the shortlist: podtalasje, razgrabica, susamoca, budnozorje, studentoslovlje, zasutravanje, zastarelica, neporazan, razdanica and zavicajevati. Public voting closed on Friday, October 23, at 8 a.m. The results had been announced for Saturday, October 24, and the media reported them on Monday, October 26.
The two rankings show how far tastes diverge. The public ranked studentoslovlje, razdanica and zastarelica. The jury ranked zastarelica, razdanica and razgrabica, with prizes of 600, 400 and 200 euros. “Razdanica” is therefore the only word that took the same place, second, on both lists. “Zastarelica” is in the top three on both, but at opposite ends, while “studentoslovlje” did not make the jury’s top three and “razgrabica” did not make the public’s.
What do studentoslovlje and razdanica mean?
The name of the author of the public’s winning word has not been published. All that is known is the explanation, which Nova.rs carried. In it, the proposer first says that “slovo” had a much broader meaning in Old Slavic than a letter of the alphabet, then continues:
The word ‘Studentoslovlje’ describes this long lesson about solidarity, about democracy, perseverance, about readiness for great sacrifices in the name of higher goals. The word slovo today makes us think, above all, of a letter of the alphabet, but in Old Slavic it had a much broader meaning: word, speech, discourse, telling, learning. A trace of that meaning still lives on in some surviving compounds, often carrying with it a hint of something solemn, important, serious, lasting. That is why ‘Studentoslovlje’ names well what we have long been witnessing: a lesson that we are not giving to students, but that students are giving to us.
The other word on the podium is “razdanica.” Its proposer also remained unnamed, and explained the word as the moment “when day breaks for all of us and we see things more clearly, more beautifully, more purely, the moment when the darkness leaves and hides in the corners.” “Razgrabica” describes demand so strong that something sells out in a very short time, for example clothing, cinema or theater tickets, a new novel or a popular toy.
Who won in earlier years?
The vote has been held since 2023. That year the winner was “duhoklonuce,” in 2024 “rasanica,” and last year “bezrecica.” Looking at the sequence, the public regularly picks words that name the mood of a moment: a slump, an awakening, being left without an answer. This year’s studentoslovlje fits that line easily, except that here the mood is recognized in a specific event from public life.
The jury opted this year for a word that does practical work in the language: it offers a native term where people had so far said “archaism.” The number of votes and the names of the jury members were not given in the published reports.
